This invention relates to an air-driven scaler, and more particularly to an air-driven dental tooth scaler having improved vibration characteristics. The invention also relates to such a scaler having general industrial rise, such as for use in polishing hard metals, or the like.
While the invention is applicable to uses other than as a dental scaler, the following discussion and detailed description is given with respect to dental tooth scalers by way of example, it being clear that the device is equally applicable for other uses where a vibrating tip is required, such as for polishing hard metals when making molds for injection molding or other molds, and for other uses.
Air-driven vibrating-type dental tooth scalers are known in the art, for example as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,811,190, U.S. Pat. No. 4,330,282 and others. However, the known air-driven dental scalers have unstable or undesirable vibration frequency characteristics, and have frequencies of vibration which vary widely during application of a load during use, and depending upon the type of scaling tool connected to the working end thereof.
It is the object of the present invention to provide an improved air-driven dental scaler which has stable vibration frequency characteristics, even during use and over a wide range of applied loads, and in which the vibration frequency is stable at an optimum frequency for use as a dental scaler.
A further object of the invention is to provide such an improved air-driven dental scaler which is relatively simple in construction and which involves only relatively small modifications to the known air-driven vibration-imparting mechanism.